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Galactic GPS

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by GrumpyCabbie, Mar 30, 2012.

  1. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    BBC News - Dead stars 'to guide spacecraft'


    Wow, that is so simple it just has to work. Imagine being able to plot yourself anywhere in the Galaxy to within 5 metres.

    Come to think of it, I remember seeing Chekov or was it Sulu entering the details into the Enterprise's gps (Galaxy Positioning System) in the original Star Trek.
     
    #1 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 30, 2012
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  2. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    It will still need to be updated periodically, because of the fluid movement in the galactic tidal/gravitational flows...
     
    #2 amm0bob, Mar 30, 2012
  3. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    The article said five kilometers. And we still lack the technology to get a spacecraft to the nearest star in a human lifetime.

    And for the system to work, it would have to count pulses for every reference quasar from the time the craft left the last known reference point, since the quasars (unlike GPS satellites) do not transmit a time signal. If you lost count, you'd have no idea where you were on the pulse stream.
     
    #3 daniel, Mar 30, 2012
  4. FL_Prius_Driver

    FL_Prius_Driver Senior Member

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    This same technique was used by NASA on the Pioneer Plaque to tell any aliens where to find earth.

    [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque]Pioneer plaque - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

    Hopefully they don't misinterpret it as a free dinner coupon.
     
    #4 FL_Prius_Driver, Mar 30, 2012
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  5. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    Hmmmm... curious... I thought that the pulsars/quasars had unique pulse counts and could be identified by using a counter that would tell you how many it had every minute/second... thus, losing count wouldn't necessarily prevent you from knowing which pulsar/quasar you were looking at if you had the information of what the count was before and took a new measurement after you could identify a particular speck in the distance...



    As for getting within 5 meters... :pound: I agree completely... Not with anything we have now that's for sure...
     
    #5 amm0bob, Mar 30, 2012
  6. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    Actually had numerous discussions in a group regarding that very plaque... I called it a dinner plate.
     
    #6 amm0bob, Mar 30, 2012
  7. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    OK ok it was a typo :eek:
     
    #7 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 30, 2012
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  8. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    This is precisely why some folks believe we should NOT advertise our presence. Well, not precisely "dinner," but the fact that any civilization capable of getting here is probably also capable of enslaving us, or destroying us, as Europeans enslaved or destroyed every civilization they encountered during the "great" age of discovery.

    I'm not worried, though, because the distances are so great that by the time anybody picks up our signal and makes it here, humans will have long gone extinct anyway.
     
    #8 daniel, Mar 31, 2012
  9. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Which signal(s)? If they're picking up our television broadcasts, they'll stay far, far away. So, right - either way, not to worry. :cool:
     
    #9 hyo silver, Mar 31, 2012
  10. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Define enslaved or destroyed in this context.

    I'm sure the relatives of the Incas or South Americans or who ever are more than happy to be sitting in their air conditioned homes, driving cars than still living in huts in the jungle. I remember seeing an article about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil where people keep back and only view them from a distance so as not to contaminate them with our culture.

    BBC NEWS | Americas | Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil

    What right have we to do this? What right have we to deny them the things we enjoy (good and bad). Would meeting (or more likely contacting) an alien race actually be a bad thing? We could learn so much from each other. Maybe they're watching us like we're watching that Brazilian tribe? I'd rather risk being influenced by them for our mutual benefit. Imagine what we could learn? Even just a small percentage.
     
    #10 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 31, 2012
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